Loans for Wedding Receptions and Venues

Planning your wedding?  Planning on preparing the table flowers yourself?  Here are some tips to save you money on your wedding when preparing your own wedding flowers.  Mini bouquets must be conditioned first by being placed in water, then take green plastic dishes and place foam and the number card in the middle.  Then add enough water and insert enough ivy tendrils to hide the plastic container. Rotate the container as you build the display to ensure that there are no gaps.  This video may provide some good insight on how to do all of this.

In a previous entry we talked about ways to save on your wedding flowers.  One of the tips suggested was to pick flowers that are “in season”.  For instance, Forsythias, Hydrangeas, Roses and Tulips are in season during the winter.  While Calla Lilies, Ivies and Baby Breath are typically always in season.  Picking a flower during it’s season can help reduce the overall cost of your wedding.  However, one Bridal Flower tip that we forget to mention is in addition to flowers being in season with respect to their bloom / growth, you must also be aware of what flowers are in high demand due to the season that your wedding is planned for.  For instance, yellows and oranges are typically in higher demand in the fall season, while reds are typically in greater demand during the winter, and more particular, around Christmas.  The high demand for certain colors can often times double the cost of a flower.  When meeting with a florist, ask whether or not the flowers you like will be in high demand… Additionally, once you settle, make sure you lock in a rate, and give a deposit so that if the price of the flower goes up, you will not be penalized.

We found a great article talking about wedding colors written by Dennis Estrada.  Here are some things to think about when picking flowers and decorating for the wedding.

• Black depicts formal, modern, sexy, and sophisticated.
• Blue calls for calmness, tranquility, truthfulness, nobleness, and faithfulness.
• Brown makes you feel comfortable, warm, and cozy.
• Green represents wealth, money, nature, environment, fertility, growth, re-birth, victory, healing, abundant, and renewable.
• Orange stands for energy, sun, warmth and comfortable.
• Pink symbolizes the femininity, admiration, love, pretty, spring, gentleness, harmony, fidelity, and sensuality.
• Purple shows nobility, royalty, luxury, authority, creativity, inspiration, and spirituality. It is a mysterious and intriguing color. The darker shades of purple represent sensuality, while the lighter shades of purple represent romance and delicate.
• Red creates excitement as red raises blood pressure. Red also symbolizes love, passion, sex, and power. Hence, we like to give red roses to show a strong affection of love. Red means good luck in China, while red means purity in India. Life, vitality, celebrations, and gifts are associated with red. The negative images about red are blood, war, danger, fire, and anger.
• White is one of the neutral colors which are common in wedding dress, flowers, and attire. White is also associated with purity, innocence, cleanliness, and virtue. Think of snow, winter, and peace as wedding themes.
• Yellow is a happy, joyful, cheerful, and hopeful color. Because it is close to the color gold, it is sometimes a symbol of wealth.

Dennis Estrada owns wedding advice, fall wedding ideas, and green weddings website.

In addition to the other must have wedding items, wedding flowers can be a costly expense. If you’re planning on having fresh flowers for the wedding ceremony (whether it’s a church, temple, venue), each member of the bridal party (boutiques for the bridesmaids and flower girl and boutonnieres for the Groomsmen / Ushers / Ring Bearer / Pageboy), floral arrangements / centerpieces for each table at the reception hall, flowers for the parents – it all adds up. Here are some ideas to save on Wedding Flowers.

• Choose Flowers that are in Season

• Choose Less Expensive Flowers, or use less expensive flowers as color fillers with expensive flowers.

Top 10 Most Expensive Flowers:

1. Casablanca Lily
2. Gardenia
3. Hydrangea
4. Lily of the Valley
5. Lisianthus
6. Orchid
7. Peony
8. Rose
9. Stephanotis
10. Tulip

Top 10 Inexpensive Flowers:

1. Alstroemeria Lily
2. Baby’s Breath
3. Carnation
4. Chrysanthemum
5. Daisy
6. Freesia
7. Gladiolus
8. Queen Anne’s Lace
9. Sunflower
10. Sweet William

• It’s tacky, but consider decreasing the size of your Bridal party to reduce the number of bouquets that must be purchased. Boquets are typically $80 – $120 each!

• Instead of using flower arrangements for center pieces, consider using candles (possibly on top of mirrored tiles) and scatter rose petals or fall leaves to bring color to the table.

• Choose in season flowers – this will reduce much of the overhead that the florist will incur.